Current and historical discussions of the best teams and players across the nation, along with question sets and tournaments. The board-run national polls also take place in this forum. Region-specific discussion live under this forum.

I plan to direct a national small-school poll ahead of NAQT's Small School National Championship Tournament, which is scheduled to take place the weekend of April 28-30 in Rosemont, Ill. I will solicit top-10 ballots for each of the SSNCT's two divisions: traditional public and charter-and-private. Coaches, TDs, active players, and other knowledgeable community members will all be eligible to contribute to the poll. If you'd like to participate, shoot me a PM with your name, team affiliation (if any), class year (if a student), and email address. I'll issue a ballot call over email in a few days, after interested parties have had a chance to get in touch with me.

Several voters requested that I not publish their ballots, lest they negatively influence others' opinions of them or their team. In lieu of publishing just a handful of ballots, I thought it best to publish them all — anonymized and randomized. You may view them here.

I hope teams will find these rankings instructive and motivational. Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to post them below or shoot me a PM. I plan to conduct a general pre-nats poll next month, at which time I'll begin a separate thread.

Last edited by deserto on Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I will probably be able to do it, but I'm not sure when your deadline will be. On another note, I'm still waiting to hear if Rumney, NH is going to send a team to your MS tournament. They have kids on the sign-up, but sports are creating conflict.

troyharris wrote:I will probably be able to do it, but I'm not sure when your deadline will be. On another note, I'm still waiting to hear if Rumney, NH is going to send a team to your MS tournament. They have kids on the sign-up, but sports are creating conflict.

Will this be a small-schools-that-are-going-to-SSNCT-only poll, or a true small school poll that just happens to take place before SSNCT? Lehigh Valley Academy is a a truly small, non-selective school. (Please see my earlier posts for a breakdown of our school's demographics.) However, while LVA is a public school it is also a charter school, so NAQT's rules do not allow us to participate with traditional public schools at SSNCT this year, but do allow us to to participate in the Charter/Private division--at least until our class size reaches 120 kids, at which point we won't be eligible for either division. Anyway... while we had a great time at SSNCT in 2016, our kids have elected to use our club's funds to go to other national tournaments this year.
However, I am asking that LVA be included in your poll so the QB community doesn't forget that we really are a legitimate small school and to remind everyone that this subject deserves further examination. I assume that NHBB and NSC will continue to regard us as a small school, so I would prefer that we be included with the public schools in your poll, but it is your poll, Gabe, so we'll take what we can get!

Antrobus63 wrote:Will this be a small-schools-that-are-going-to-SSNCT-only poll, or a true small school poll that just happens to take place before SSNCT? Lehigh Valley Academy is a a truly small, non-selective school. (Please see my earlier posts for a breakdown of our school's demographics.) However, while LVA is a public school it is also a charter school, so NAQT's rules do not allow us to participate with traditional public schools at SSNCT this year, but do allow us to to participate in the Charter/Private division--at least until our class size reaches 120 kids, at which point we won't be eligible for either division. Anyway... while we had a great time at SSNCT in 2016, our kids have elected to use our club's funds to go to other national tournaments this year.
However, I am asking that LVA be included in your poll so the QB community doesn't forget that we really are a legitimate small school and to remind everyone that this subject deserves further examination. I assume that NHBB and NSC will continue to regard us as a small school, so I would prefer that we be included with the public schools in your poll, but it is your poll, Gabe, so we'll take what we can get!

I just sent out the poll; if anyone who would like to participate did not receive an email from me, let me know. LVA is indeed eligible for the poll, as are all other teams that meet NAQT's small-school criteria. Given that players attending the SSNCT two weekends from now comprise the cohort likely to be most interested in the poll's results, I opted to use NAQT's classification scheme (under which LVA is considered a "charter and private" school) to construct the poll.

Question: Are there any major scools that could feasibly comprise the Top 10 not going to either division? I don't believe any major Traditional Public Division schools have opted not to go (correct me if I'm wrong), but for the C/P Division, are there any schools other than LVA that are not going?

Chromica wrote:Question: Are there any major scools that could feasibly comprise the Top 10 not going to either division? I don't believe any major Traditional Public Division schools have opted not to go (correct me if I'm wrong), but for the C/P Division, are there any schools other than LVA that are not going?

Just sent you an email! Yes. John Crawford pointed out that Cistercian (Texas) is small-school-eligible, and Chandler West noted that Battle Ground Academy (Tenn.) is as well; thanks for the contributions, guys!

Chromica wrote:Question: Are there any major scools that could feasibly comprise the Top 10 not going to either division? I don't believe any major Traditional Public Division schools have opted not to go (correct me if I'm wrong), but for the C/P Division, are there any schools other than LVA that are not going?

I don't know that we would necessarily make the top 10, but Sacred Heart qualifies under C/P and will not be attending.

Devin James John Bartholomew Humphreys
Team Captain, Sacred Heart Academy High School (MI), Class of 2017Michigan State University, anticipated Class of 2020

Results above! Thanks to the eight voters who undertook the taxing task of compiling rankings for this small-school pre-nats poll. Good luck to all teams competing at the SSNCT — as well as those headed to the HSNCT, NSC, and any remaining state or regional competitions.

Anyways, as much as I'd love to see the names of people with their ballots, I can understand the desire to keep them anonymous. Granted, there are no perfect rankings, but one or two specific rankings that struck me as out-of-place.

Chromica wrote:Thanks for hosting this poll! It was a pleasure to participate.

Anyways, as much as I'd love to see the names of people with their ballots, I can understand the desire to keep them anonymous. Granted, there are no perfect rankings, but one or two specific rankings that struck me as out-of-place.

I'm glad you enjoyed yourself! For lack of a more statistically rigorous approach, I thought posting the ballots would allow readers to identify any outlier picks and adjust their impressions accordingly. Despite our collective attempt to account for teams not registered for the SSNCT, some potentially deserving squads fell through the cracks: Sacred Heart Academy, Fisher Catholic, ?